Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
alermar_gw

Trend toward completely open kitchen -- am I making a mistake?

alermar
9 years ago

The trend in our area (SFla) and on Houzz seems to be toward completely open kitchens -- removing all barriers between the living areas and the kitchen. I've been told that I'm making a mistake by only having a partially open kitchen in our modernish home plan. Most of the time, I suppose I wouldn't mind a completely open kitchen, but on big holidays, I can't imagine wanting guests to mingle amidst piles of dirty pots & pans. On the other hand, everyone seems to end up in my kitchen anyway (which is attached to the family room), and the living room is always empty. Anyone have a completely open kitchen? I'm including a draft plan of the downstairs (we're gutting the house, but exterior walls must remain). What do you think?

Comments (31)

  • pigeen
    9 years ago

    This weekend the Wall Street Journal "Mansions" section had an article on pantry trends -- one person with a completely open kitchen had built a kitchen into her pantry so she could keep her "real" kitchen looking sleek and clean -- she also wanted better control over cooking smells. I have to admit, it made me laugh.

  • greenhaven
    9 years ago

    Oh, good grief, pigeen, really? That one article would be enough to make me never read another. I don't have anything else to say about that that does not violate the principle our others taught us about not having anything nice to say so I will stop there.

    Op, I agree with Robyn, do what is right for you and forget trends, unless your plan is to resell the home in a few years.

  • lazy_gardens
    9 years ago

    It looks fine to me ... conveniently close to the garage, good sized pantry

    Build what YOU want, not what's trend

  • alermar
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Too funny pigeen!
    I guess I'm not sure how I feel about it -- i.e., what's "right" for me. Like I said, everyone ends up in my kitchen anyway. I'd love to hear more from those who have an open kitchen -- love it or hate it?
    I'm not worried about resale.
    Our architect wanted the kitchen even more closed off, but when he entertains, there are usually caterers, which is why a closed-off kitchen works for him. I, on the other hand, AM the caterer lol

  • weissman
    9 years ago

    In a similar vein to pigeen's story, a caterer I know told me that she showed up at a large house to cater a party and started to set up in the kitchen. The homeowner came running in and told her NO - this is my show kitchen, the working kitchen is downstairs.

  • northcarolina
    9 years ago

    I don't like people hovering around talking to me when I'm trying to do serious kitchen work, though I like to be able to continue the chat while I'm just making tea for a friend. So I think my ideal would be a kitchen that has a table and chairs (normal height) and is set apart from the main living space.

  • fouramblues
    9 years ago

    I love our open kitchen, in spite of the fact that guests see my dirty dishes. (A really big, deep sink helps with that.) The kitchen/dining area is completely open to the family room to the west, and there's a wide entry into the living room to the south. Doesn't get much more open concept than that, and it works for me. FYI, I believe the popularity of the open concept trend is declining, but what matters is what works for you!

    (This is the general floorplan, though the arrangement of appliances in the kitchen was tweaked.)

  • bpath
    9 years ago

    It's all personal preference. I do like how your counter wraps around to a wet bar; that end will be a popular and convenient place to perch and chat with the cook while waiting for a pot to boil. But, um, you might want to look at the kitchen layout. The cooktop at the end of the island leaves no landing spot on either side, and it looks far from the perimeter counters.

  • alermar
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you fouramblues for the layout and everyone else for your comments. I will peruse in more detail after work ;) I just wanted to respond to bpathome (and apologize for confusion) -- the layout of the appliances has changed considerably since the plans were drawn. But the floor plan of the home is the same. Also the "family" room will function more as a media room (we will be empty nesters by the time the house is completed)

  • robo (z6a)
    9 years ago

    I think there are pros and cons to open kitchens. There are many that predict the demise of the completely open kitchen as a trend, although I prefer them.

    I hate feeling closed away from the action or isolated, which is why we opened up our kitchen in the first place. It felt like the kitchen was more of a scullery, totally too far from the action.

    My husband likes the way our peninsula keeps wanderers out of his prep zone. So he prefers a semi-closed.

    I like chatting with him and with guests while meal prep is taking place, so I like pretty open.

    He'd be happier, I think, if he could see the family room TV while he's cooking. But then again he rejected the notion of putting a TV in the kitchen.

    Neither of us is bothered by mess and our mess is fully visible to the dining room in the current setup. We also have a really deep sink which helps hide mess when needed, plus he cleans as he goes.

  • ILoveCookie
    9 years ago

    Nine years ago, I visited a co-worker's house, and discovered he has two kitchens! The real kitchen is in the basement, and the show kitchen is on the main floor. LOL.

  • Kiwigem
    9 years ago

    I really like your floor plan! Another vote for building what makes you happy. Psychologically speaking, I have heard that in the long-term people who love the look of completely open floor plans tend to enjoy living in semi open floor plans because all-one-room plans make you feel like you have nowhere to go. No matter where you walk, you're still in the same room. I guess people tend to like changes of scenery whether they realize it or not (?). It's what my architect said, anyway, and it rings true to me.

    The house we are building is semi-open, depending on the season in a way. The house is L-shaped with the kitchen (open to dining) on one arm and the family room on the other. The foyer/front door is the "point" of the L and the kitchen and family room hug the patio. So, when the weather is good there will be a circular flow from kitchen to patio to family room and back, but during the winter (Read: HOLIDAYS) the kitchen and dining will be fairly separated from the family room. Personally I like this for two reasons: 1.) I have little kids and kids eating near upholstery stresses me out! 2.) I want to be able to relax with guests after dinner and not be staring at dishes.

    Good luck with your project!

  • dcward89
    9 years ago

    Our kitchen is semi-open I guess with half walls separating it from the lr/dr. Opening it up was the main goal of our remodel earlier this year. Now that I have lived with it for awhile, I never want to go back to a closed off kitchen. As far as kitchen messes and needing to hide them...I make no attempt to hide my kitchen or it's messes. If I cook, the kitchen gets messy. If you want me to cook for you, it's probably gonna be messy. I've never been aware of anyone who was bothered by the mess that resulted from me cooking for them!! We'll either clean it up together or I'll do it when you leave...either way is fine by me.

  • Shelley Graham
    9 years ago

    Do what works for you. We are FINALLY getting an open plan after 40 years of unused formal living rooms. We're moving the kitchen to the center of the house, to the existing living room, and opening the wall to the family room to form a great room. Can't wait to have a plan that really suits the way we live...everyone hanging in the kitchen (not on the business side of the island!).

    Good luck...can't wait to see the final reveal!

  • romy718
    9 years ago

    We have a completely open kitchen to our family room & breakfast area. For day to day living, I like it. Besides not feeling isolated from family & TV, I like all the additional sunlight from the family room.
    Some things to think about with a completely open plan:
    The walls are continuous so crown molding & paint have to be the same in both rooms. When we remodeled our kitchen, we had to redo our family room as the FR colors & style didn't go with what I wanted to do in the kitchen. We also had many doorways & windows which limited wall space for cabinets. We ended up closing the doorway to our dining room to get one long wall. One long wall gave us so many more design options. I didn't realize until we started trying to create a layout for a new kitchen how limiting all those doorways & lack of walls are.
    The only time it bothers me to have people in the kitchen is the holidays, when we have a large group. We solved that by serving appetizers & drinks in our finished basement & living room, keeping people out of the kitchen & FR, while DH & I prepare the meal.
    My final assessment: I prefer a kitchen that is open to the FR.

  • rmtdoug
    9 years ago

    Some floor plans do not work with open kitchen plans. I posted a potential open kitchen layout here on GW and it was soundly voted down. It was not appropriate for the size (smallish) and period (old) of my house, and I agreed it was not the right plan for my house. Now the plan involves an enclosed kitchen with a 4-5 foot wide opening to the rest of the house and I am comfortable it will be a better plan when I get around to finalizing it.

    Your floor plan looks fine to me, but in your kitchen, if those are sliding doors in the corner, I would think about moving them. Otherwise, you lose all use of that corner. Ditto on the cooktop. You need a landing space next to it. I'm not even sure code would allow it like you show.

    This post was edited by rmtdoug on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 13:18

  • lascatx
    9 years ago

    I think guests are savvy enough to know that the food didn't appear without some work -- and dirty dishes - involved. Unless everything came in containers and already prepared, in which case containers are the "dirty dishes." You won't shock anyone unless it looks like food fights were taking place before they arrived. I have a large deep sink and two DWs. Doesn't hide everything, but it controls it.

    I tend towards the "don't shut me out while everyone else is talking, sharing stories, watching the game, etc" camp. Not only when entertaining, but day to day. I want to see my family as well as my guests -- I prefer an open living arrangement. That's an everyday concern, while entertaining is more occasional.

    Your preferences and way or working/living may be different, but you said everyone winds up in the kitchen anyway. That's the biggest problem I see with that kitchen. You've got a narrow entry point and not that much room to circulate. It could get very crowded and hard to work, much less move between the kitchen and living areas (can't read the writing to see how those spaces are labelled -- family room and something?). You may be able to minimize that with serving options and such, but flow or lack of it can be one of the worst problems with entertaining -- not seeing a dirty dish.

  • ChristyMcK
    9 years ago

    Personally, I don't like my dining room table in sight of my kitchen. I'm a messy cook and it bothers me to see the mess while I'm trying to enjoy dinner. We do clean as we go, but there's always last minute items that are left out. We have a breakfast nook in our kitchen for people to sit at and our dining room is through a revolving door. The living room is opposite the dining room further from the kitchen. This works great for us.

    That said, I really think it depends on how you live. Our set up would be terrible for my parents because my dad doesn't cook much and watches tv while my mom cooks. Their open floor plan allows my mom to cook and dad to watch tv and be in the same room together. They chat and it's a way they are together. I think my mom would be miserable with our set up. My husband and I enjoy cooking together so neither of us are in different places during dinner prep.

    So, I'd do what you want taking into consideration how you realistically live.

  • LE
    9 years ago

    I think "open" can mean a lot of different things. We decided on a peninsula, so the sight and conversation lines are open, but the traffic pattern is not. Well, the entry is 4 feet wide, so you can come on through and get to the fridge, but if you are just keeping the cook company, you can just sit down on a barstool and chat.

    We also dropped the ceiling in the kitchen to 8 ft, partly to define the space and partly because I wasn't crazy about the empty triangular space above the upper cabinets otherwise.

    So I don't know if that is an open plan or not. You can see a long way, but the kitchen still has its own identity and feels like a different room. You can talk to someone at the dining table easily from the kitchen. With regard to dirty dishes, I have a great ability to divert my eyes. And dimmers on the kitchen lights help, too!

  • lavender_lass
    9 years ago

    Do you have a basement or den? If so, then okay. If not, I wouldn't do it. We were at my mom's a few months ago...some in kitchen helping her, others trying to watch Tangled with the kids. Too much noise and no one could hear anything clearly. Time to move TV back into separate room! :)

  • EmmJay
    9 years ago

    You have a really nice plan there, so just think it through and think very carefully about how it will work for you. My husband, who does all the cooking, loves open kitchens, and our current home has one that's open to the family room. He loves it, but I hate it because I can't hear the TV when he's working in it. Our new townhome is almost done, and as another Floridian, I know it's impossible to find one without an open kitchen, so once again it's completely open to the family room. This time, though, I'll have an office upstairs to escape the noise. I personally don't see the appeal of open kitchens, other than being nice for entertaining, but he loves the spacious feel. Since he's the cook, I defer to him, especially now that I'll have my own space away from the noise.

  • alermar
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you to everyone for your reasoned comments about the open kitchens. Essentially, there seem to be pros and cons to both, even taking my personal preferences to heart. Instead of worrying about making a "mistake", I think the answer is that I can't go wrong. No matter what I do, I will enjoy the kitchen (oh the joy of a new kitchen after 18 years with the same cabinets and appliances lol), albeit in a different way. The one comment that really resonates though is that if I have an entirely open kitchen, I won't be able to "walk away" from the guests, whether it's to prep something in quiet (no matter how brief) or just to gather my thoughts. No matter how much I love entertaining or love the guests, I always need a moment or two to myself (and one can only powder one's nose so often). I really can't thank you enough for all the different viewpoints. Each one added a new dimension to my thought process. I think I'll leave the floor plan as is (except of course for the kitchen layout). Please keep fingers crossed that the city approves the plans soon so that I don't keep rethinking things!

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    A couple of times, I've gone to a fundraiser where the kitchen looks something like this

    [Modern Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2105) by Austin Architects & Building Designers Specht Harpman Architects

    It is open from the entry, through the living room, dining room and into the kitchen. The kitchen is all white, high-gloss, lacquered cabinets with no knobs. There is a sink but no fridge, or cooking area visible. I've noticed that the catereres come out of a nearly concealed door in the corner. I think it may be one of those situations where the real kitchen is concealed. Although the homeowner and I are acquaintances, I don't know her well enough to ask to see the "real" kitchen. It probably looks like this

  • lavender_lass
    9 years ago

    LOL! I'm sorry...my kitchen could never look like that first picture. It looks like a museum exhibit! Not a place where you make chocolate chip cookies or lasagna :)

  • carolmka
    9 years ago

    One additional comment, I think its not out being open but about function. In our house my floor plan is fairly open. I could make the kitchen larger (aka more open) but I would give up seating. I can easily seat plus 12 and would lose that if I took away my dining room. Plus I have made my living room into an adult lounge area, Not sure if i ma ready to let that go either. Good Luck.

  • HOMESWEETHOME1
    9 years ago

    While it seems to be a universal truth that no matter what you do, everyone always ends up in the kitchen anyway, I'm REALLY not fond of people all up in my space when I'm in the middle of serious cooking. At the same time, I didn't want to close off the kitchen because it's not as though we're throwing major get-togethers every night, and when it's just the family, I want to be able to have easy sightlines to the living room/dining area.

    This was bugging me until I realized that I could design a kitchen with a sliding door partition. Now our plan includes the best of both worlds: my kitchen will be open when I want it to be open, and closed when I want it to be closed. As an added bonus, the sliding door will also make it possible for me to shut out the television noise in the living room if I decide I want to listen to music while I cook.

  • susanlynn2012
    9 years ago

    HomeSweetHome1, I love the idea of an open kitchen with the sliding door! I have mostly an open kitchen but has a small section for some privacy. I can see the TV when I am eating in the kitchen and talk to guests.

  • alermar
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    HomeSweethome1 -- I love the idea of the wide sliding door, and originally, that was the plan, but DH wont give up the wrap-around bar area. I wonder if it would be possible to have some kind of pull-out counter that could extend a few feet when we wanted a real "bar" but would be folded away normally and we could still have the slider. The slider can only be in the wall behind the bar though because the other side is window. Originally I had thought of one of those outside wall sliders (not sure what it's called) but we need the wall on the living room side of the bar for a large painting. Hmmmm . . . I'm going to see if anyone on the decorating forum has a solution that might give me the best of both worlds.

  • lucillle
    9 years ago

    I can't imagine a 'real' kitchen in a basement, seems like too far to go guests or not.
    My last home had a completely open kitchen, this one has an open archway where I can see into other rooms and I think I prefer that to the totally open area.

  • HOMESWEETHOME1
    9 years ago

    Alermar, can you maybe put a pocket door in the wall behind the bar, and break up the wrap-around with a hinged wooden section of the counter that you can just flip out of the way when you want to use the door to separate the spaces? If the wooden section flips in toward the kitchen side of that wall, the bar side would just look as though it ended at the pocket door from the living room side of that space.

    I think there are a lot of great things about an open floor plan, but smaller, cozy spaces are important, too. It's a real trick to find a good balance between the two that doesn't look forced or incoherent.